Aylmer pool area:

New high school to push dog park out

Bulletin Team

The popular Paul-Pelletier Canine Exercise Area (CEA), just northwest of the Aylmer pool, will close in the coming months. This is to allow construction of a future  Commission scolaire des Portages-de-l'Outaouais (CSPO) high school for 810 students.

According to the Aylmer Canine Club, the CEA will be relocated to Allen Park, about 4 km west, at 100 Allen Road.

 

This busy park already has a basketball court, tennis court, baseball diamond, and more. The Aylmer Canine Club notes that it took more than four years of effort for them to get Gatineau to build this fenced dog park. The club is worried the new space won’t be ready in a timely fashion.

“Despite CSPO's commitment to cover the relocation costs, which has reassured our more than 1,000 members, we are still uncertain about the timing of the relocation and of the construction work. We find unacceptable that the new CEA would be inaccessible and nonfunctional before the closure of the existing CEA. To this end and to reassure the community members, we ask the CSPO to send us as soon as possible a clear and official agenda of the steps it intends to take,” stated the Club.

The future high school at the Paul Pelletier Park is scheduled to open in September 2019; however, the school board has (according to city records) yet to acquire the land from Gatineau.

It remains unclear if the school board will need to purchase additional land to build the high school. One forthcoming study could help decide this, the environmental assessment.

The adjacent golf course to the north is owned by Ottawa developer Richcraft Homes while an undeveloped property to the east and north of the commercial zone is owned by Toronto’s Choice Properties Real Estate Investment.

The Bulletin has asked the CSPO for comment, but had not heard back by press time